How did big galaxies get so big? A rare glimpse at a primordial galaxy undergoing a growth spurt may provide some answers.

The galaxy Himiko is named for a Japanese queen of the third century AD. Researchers peered into the galaxy using both the Hubble Space Telescope and the newly inaugurated ALMA telescope array in Chile. The galaxy is so distant that astronomers see it as it appeared just 800 million years after the big bang, when the universe was only about six percent of its present age.

The researchers say that their observations offer the first clear glimpse at how the most massive galaxies took shape, way back when the earliest stars and galaxies were lighting up the universe. And that should prove to be a very big deal.

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Subscribe Now!Primordial Galaxy Shows How to Make a Big OneLooking at the Himiko Galaxy as it was just 800 million years after the big bang offers a glimpse at how the most massive galaxies took shape. John Matson reports

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